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For the third year in a row, I took time in December to speak with about a dozen ebook and digital publishing influencers about the year that was and their predictions of what might happen in the ebook and digital publishing industry in 2014.

What happens to the other predictions, those that didn't make it? Well, they end up on the cutting-room floor. In the age of online media, there need not be information and insight cut for lack of space. So, here are some more predictions for ebooks and digital publishing from a diverse array of experts I spoke with this month -- in no particular order:

-- Divestitures in higher education publishing: Higher-education publisher Cengage filed for bankruptcy in July 2013. McGraw-Hill was acquired by private-equity firm Apollo Global Mangement (which also, by the way, owns Cengage, but they are in different funds). This prediction presages more financial activity in the higher-education sector as Apollo and others attempt to wring value from their investments while streamlining them for future growth.

-- Publishers create or license their own e-reading apps: Bluefire, the white-label e-reading app company, is gathering more and more clients as more companies want to engage with readers outside of the Amazon, , Barnes & Noble and Kobo ecosystems.

-- Amazon starts playing nice with publishers: This prediction directly contradicted other assertions in the article and while interesting just didn't seem likely given Amazon's current relationship with publishers and its overall historical business practices.

"Amazon will begin to have an internal dialog that playing hardball on content providers unleashes a backlash that will be unwelcome to them," said Joe Esposito, a digital media management consultant and the main proponent of this prediction.

-- Public libraries will increasingly buy access to large aggregations of ebooks: Currently, managing and growing a collection of ebooks doesn't make financial sense for some libraries. Many ebooks are expensive and libraries can't re-sell them like they can with physical books they no longer need. With aggregations of ebooks, libraries can pay a flat fee for access to a large number of ebooks.

-- There will be huge growth in digital marketing for books: This is a trend we're already observing. Many publishing companies have beefed up considerably their digital marketing talent. Authors, who play a huge role in all book marketing, have been building their online platforms.

-- Publisher margins will be under pressure: As Amazon gets even more powerful in the ebook and digital publishing industry, it could demand better margins from publishers, as it has with many of its other kinds of suppliers. Authors, too, knowing their importance to publishing companies, may demand higher royalties for their work.

-- Number of non-bookstores selling books will increase: Stores like Michael's (an art and crafts store) and Urban Outfitters have long sold books alongside other kinds of products. This trend will continue because publishers will aggressively seek out new venues for their wares as traditional bookstores are under pressure and generally reducing shelf space for books.

-- More publishers will start to sell ebooks directly to readers: Some publishers already do this, but carefully, for fear of upsetting other customers, like Barnes & Noble and Amazon. As publishers become increasingly desperate to develop a more diverse array of trading partners, they may try to sell their wares directly to consumers.

-- Self-publishing will continue to grow even as ebook sales at publishers stagnate: In 2013, growth in ebook sales stagnated -- if you're only looking at sales by traditional publishers. It's impossible to know if self-published ebook sales grew and by how much. The way self-publishing has taken off in the U.S., it's easy to imagine that sales grew in 2013 and that they'll continue to grow in 2014.

-- Amazon will buy more social companies: Amazon acquired Goodreads, the largest book-focused social network, in 2013. The move was an attempt to shore up what is seen as Amazon's greatest weakness -- social capabilities. Perhaps the company will do more to strengthen in that are in 2014.

-- Illustrated ebooks will enter the market in greater numbers as costs plummet: This prediction seemed to contradict one other we made that seemed a lot more likely (that illustrated ebooks will be severely challenged in 2014). The idea here is that publishers will realize that they need to produce illustrated ebooks at extremely low costs if they are going to be able to sell enough of them to make a profit. The technology will soon exist for them to do that and they will flood the market with inexpensive illustrated ebooks.